FIV-positive cats deserve forever homes too

FIV stands for Feline Immunodeficiency Virus - it is a virus that affects a cat’s immune system. FIV weakens the immune system making them more vulnerable to other infections.There are a lot of FIV positive cats who are looking for their forever homes and Furkids in metro Atlanta is helping make that a reality.

Furkids posted the following on their Facebook page earlier this month:

Furkids is one of the only shelters in the Southeast to rescue and adopt out FIV+ cats. These cats are sweet, loving, affectionate and healthy! Let us prove it to you! Adoption fees for FIV+ cats are now $0. That's right, $0 for a full-vetted, spayed or neutered, microchipped, healthy kitty! AND there is more! We will cover ALL vetting for an entire year just to show you how normal these cats truly are!

Click here to see all of the FIV-positive cats currently available at Furkids.

The following additional information on FIV+ cats is from the Furkids website:

Furkids is one of only a few animal rescue organizations in Georgia that has a dedicated location to house FIV+ cats. Through public awareness and education, our goal is to place our FIV+ cats into loving, permanent homes where they can flourish. The first thing to realize is that FIV is not a death sentence! Adopting an FIV+ cat is virtually the same as adopting any other cat — they are affectionate, beautiful, funny, playful, and special in their own unique ways.

According to the Best Friends Animal Society website, FIV-positive cats can live safely with FIV-negative cats “as long as the cats get along and do not fight. The risk that a FIV-positive cat could spread the virus to a FIV-negative cat can be minimized by having them live in separate rooms until you are confident that they will not fight with each other. FIV-positive cats can live normal lives both in quality and duration. They do take special care in terms of monitoring them for signs of infection and they do have a tendency to have bad dental disease.”

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Barbara Koll is a volunteer adoption center manager, adoption counselor and cat caretaker/socializer with Furkids – an animal rescue organization in Atlanta. She was also a writer for the Best Friends Network from May 2007 to February 2012 posting over 900 stories during that time. She spends a week every Fall volunteering at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. Barbara is an attorney and works for a local court system in metro Atlanta. She and her husband, Cy Lynch, live with their two rescue cats in Stone Mountain, Georgia.